<p>Thanks, Cangel!</p>
<p>What were your perceptions, if any, about Greek life there?</p>
<p>Cangel, I think you have perhaps hit on a special division of this thread: "Schools that were a better fit for me than my child"
Smith: I loved the houses and the tour guides were wonderful. Having read Jill Ker Conway didn't hurt either.
Davidson
Andrews University in Michigan
Pomona
Getting back to the original idea of schools that I should have liked but found disappointing:
Harvard: we saw it on the same day we saw Wellesley, and it seemed more like a place to do grad work.</p>
<p>Bowdoin; I love coastal Maine, like the overall feeling in Brunswick, but somehow didn't love Bowdoin when visiting with second child--liked it very much when visiting with older child and had somehow expected my younger child to end up there. Both older child and younger child liked it moderately and applied because it was the sort of school they wanted and wasn't a super-reach, but both ultimately chose other schools over Bowdoin--perhaps it was a function of the tour guides, construction in the more recent case, or just some intangible lack of spark at a given moment, I don't know.</p>
<p>Oh...and...we liked Skidmore (except the price) and NYU. Go figure.
(So I guess these reactions can be very personal)</p>
<p>I wouldn't call Colgate over-rated, but otherwise, I had a similar reaction. It seemed somehow commercial for some reason.</p>
<p>I'll pass on this opportunity to bash schools others have chosen, though son hasn't :)</p>
<p>Yep, did IDad and I see the same place? LOL! He saw the place that all the medical people I met attended! Just goes to show how much of this is perception and serendipity.
Twinmom - that is definitely something to pursue on the Duke board. I got the feeling that Greeks were an important part of campus life, but not as overwhelming as it can be on some Southern campuses. I also got the feeling from the tour guide that there was tension between admin and the Greeks, as at Dartmouth. The tension seemed to grow out of 2 touchy campus subjects - drinking and housing.
Run that question by the current students.</p>
<p>It probably does seem like bashing, though I hope not, but it's also interesting to realize that one person's wonderful place is another's disappointment and that it doesn't really have to do with ranking or selectivity but with quirky little things. It reminds me of when my son wanted a particular second-grade teacher because she was known to prepare Chinese food for her class and bring in delicious iced tea. She was considered the best by most of the parents. He got her. Second grade turned out to be his worst year in elementary school--not because the teacher was bad or my son was a problem, but because the teacher had a large class that year and her teaching style was very specific and worked for some of the kids and not others. And my son's third-grade teacher, widely considered to be the dullest in the school, was perfect for him and that was the year he turned into a "smart kid." Sometimes it's just good to know that one size doesn't fit all.</p>
<p>Williams for me- although I may have been unfairly prejudiced by the fact that we'd had problems figuring out what to do with the dog that we'd unwisely brought along (who knew it would get so hot so fast?) and the cut I got on my right ankle while we were on the tour.</p>
<p>Drew....I thought I would love it, rather close to home, small cozy, good science program....I went there and hated it. All they talked about was these two one week programs to DC and NY....and I've seen other colleges offer similar programs, but Drew acted like they were the only ones who did this. Also, I just got a really cold feeling there, on top of them pressing so much for these two programs. Did I mention they didn't shut up about this two programs??? maybe it was just a bad experience, but it def turned me away from the school that I thought I would love.</p>
<p>Cangel -- As a Duke grad (see, I worked that in up front just to make you happy :) ), but from one of their professional schools, not their undergrad, I also have ambivalent feelings about Duke. Frankly, unless a lot changes in S' Junior Year Duke will not be on the radar screen. If it were, I doubt I would push it. The campus does have a very good feel, and the undergrads do seem very happy. But, IMHO, it's a very homogenous and insular feel. And from what I saw, it really is heavily pre-professional rather than an intellectually curious place. </p>
<p>And to be quite honest it's also a very anti-southern feel. Don't get me wrong, I'm not an "American by birth, Southern by the grace of God" kind of guy. But Duke seems overwhelmed by people from out of the area, and it just gets very wearying to hear a bunch of 18-22 year old kids take such a holier than thou attitude about a place where THEY CHOSE to go.</p>
<p>The constant beating up on Durham also got a little tiresome (no offense, cangel -- you only saw the surface of Durham). Durham's not Chapel Hill. Heck, it's not even Raleigh, but it's only a downer if you don't take the time to explore it (which most Duke students don't do). Good clubs, at least a fair amount of good restaurants, Durham Bulls baseball (although it was better when they were an A club, now they've gone upscale to AAA and torn down one of the greatest minor league parks around). </p>
<p>Oh well, my vent for the day.</p>
<p>I don't see this thread as bashing at all. These are all great schools ... different strokes for different folks ... or, as my dad always said, that's what makes horse racing!
Ultimately, the choices lie with the kids, anyway.
Hope I'm not too off topic, but I'd also like to hear about folks' gut reactions to Emory.</p>
<p>My alma mater (Williams) - I tried to hide my disappointment on our two visits, but there was no getting around it; Harvard (but I really, really, really appreciated their honesty); Pomona (it may have been the tour guide, and the really snotty admissions office - I think I liked everything else about it, but it was hard to get them out of mind). I was disappointed that my d. didn't like Amherst (I did - and I'm an Eph!) I wasn't disappointed in Reed, though it was more "over the top" than I expected.</p>
<p>School that bowled me over - Smith - I didn't expect to like it, but it is so different from what it was in 1967 (where I met my first love!), that I needed to refocus, and look at what was really happening there now, rather than my memories of it. Jill Ker Conway helped. I liked Scripps! (actually, I would love to live in Claremont, I think.) I liked Yale more than I expected I would (I think it was meeting the dredlocked sophomore woman who helped run the organic garden).</p>
<p>The place I never figured out really was Bard. I think there may be a bit of a mismatch between the all-star faculty, the creative thinking of its President, the fundraising of its board of trustees, and the student body. Twenty years from now, it may be a very different place.</p>
<p>And I think ALL these schools are really terrific institutions, for the right student.</p>
<p>Yea, yeah, lderochi, lead with the "Dukeness" ;). I don't disagree with you, except maybe for the "homogeneous", not sure how you mean that. It IS heavily pre-prof, I was trying to be nice, and very non-Southern - perhaps that is why it does not seem homogenous to me, the exotic, out of the South atmosphere.
As for Durham, my DD was more turned off by it than I was, perhaps it was the used condom in the motel parking lot where we stayed, she learned through the college hunting experience that she isn't quite ready for the "big city". I actually think Durham does get a bad rap, Durham is a "real" town with some real economic ups and downs, not a "cute little college town" like Chapel Hill. What I noticed about the town was again related to isolation - hard to walk to anything from the dorms - maybe we were turned around?</p>
<p>Twinmom: No first-hand experience, but I just spoke with the mom of a current Emory freshman who is planning to transfer from Emory after this year. Fine academics, lovely campus, but his gripe is the fractured nature of the community there. It seems that many, many kids leave campus after first year to live in gated off-campus apartments. Not enough of a cohesive community for him.</p>
<p>Thanks for passing that along, wjb. A cohesive community is very important, IMO. Another school that generates very little discussion is Tufts.</p>
<p>My husband and myself both liked Occidental a lot, neither of my kids were drawn to it or applied. They could not really identify what it was exactly, layout of the campus, feel. We spent a lot of time there too.</p>
<p>Stanford- the "best in the west" was really disappointing in person, yes it is lovely, but I am from Califonia, so was not impressed just because of the location. The tour guides and admissins people came off as so self-satisfied and smug and "maybe, if you're very very lucky, we might consider you coming to our school." We were there in the summer time, so it was difficult to get a feel for the students, and I know adcoms are not necessarily reflective of the real feel of the school, but wow, it left us with a less than impressed feeling. My H and I both hoped our DD would decide not to apply there.</p>
<p>To state the obvious, I guess it is a blessing that we have differing tastes, or ALL the kids would apply to the same schools and all the others would shut down! I like stone, don't like brick. How about that for subjective. I especially don't like yellowy (I think that's what my 20 year old memory recalls) brick such as William and Mary's, but, as I say, to each his own. :)</p>
<p>Didn't like WUSTL. It's lovely there, but I just didn't like it. To me it felt like a school run by parents for their children. It's hard to articulate. </p>
<p>I really wanted to like Tulane, because I have a long standing love affair with New Orleans. Sadly, I didn't like the campus at all, it was just too hot for us, even in October, and the kids at the school were nothing like my D. </p>
<p>Another school I'm kind of afraid to say I didn't like is Carleton, for the opposite reasons I didn't like WUstl. I felt the physical plant was really run down and the kids seemed to be trying to out-quirk each other.</p>
<p>Different strokes...</p>